Aprilia is calling for stricter rules regarding tear-offs in MotoGP after Marco Bezzecchi’s start to the Spanish Grand Prix sprint was compromised by a discarded strip.
Championship leader Bezzecchi qualified second at Jerez last weekend, but dropped outside the top 10 due to a visor tear-off — thrown by Gresini rider Alex Marquez after the final corner on the way to the starting grid — got lodged in the front fairing of the Aprilia.
Just seconds before the start, the plastic strip fell right in front of Bezzecchi’s rear tyre, leaving with him too much wheelspin to tackle when he hit the throttle.
Bezzecchi went on to crash out of the race after struggling to put heat into his newly-fitted wet tyres following a mid-race shower, but he had already been eliminated from points contention by then.
«Unfortunately he make a big big spin during the first few metres of the launch,» Aprilia team manager Paolo Bonora said during the official MotoGP broadcast.
«We have seen that the tear off was immediately in front of his rear tyre. It was on the right wing and suddenly it fell down in front of the rear tyre.»
Marc Marquez suffered a similarly poor start at the 2024 Australian GP after discarding a tear-off to get rid of a «large insect» from his visor.
To avoid similar risks, riders have been asked not to throw tear-offs on the grid. But Bonora believes MotoGP should go further by defining zones where tear-offs can safely be thrown.
«It is something we have to fix because initially in the year we talked about this,» he said. «It was only to avoid removing the tear-off on the grid, but as you have seen, it is not enough.
«It is necessary to define a place where it is possible to remove the tear off. It would be very useful to tell the riders to remove on a straightline, say from corner 5 to 6 because it will remove any possible problems before entering the last split. It was a misfortune.»
There have been several incidents where a rider slipped on a tear-off or had one lodged in an air intake. In 2020, Jack Miller even took a humorous approach by putting up for auction the tear-off that ended his MotoGP race in Emilia Romagna.
Formula 1 is not immune to this problem, with tear-offs regularly blocking brake ducts, and the series even briefly banned drivers from throwing them onto the track in 2016, before reversing the decision.
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